My in-laws signed up for a summer program that I had never heard of before.
I is called the Fresh Air Program.
This allows kids from the inner city to experience a more country life and find out that there is more out there than the concrete and smog that they experience everyday. When the kids first arrived we were a little concerned. My in-laws are in their sixties and keeping up with two ten year old girls seemed like it was going to be a handful. They planned all sorts of activities for the girls like camping, the zoo, and even a few days at the beach. All of these were normal for them, but, the girls had never been outside that long before or had to use an outhouse like they did while camping. They were scheduled to spend a full month but after a week they seemed miserable. No matter what my mother-in-law tried she couldn’t get to them. I invited them over to hang out with our girls for the night and finally figured out what was going on. You see, my in-laws are very old fashioned and don’t have any sort of air conditioning at their house. When the girls were at my house, where we have air conditioning, they seemed much happier. I asked them about their homes and they said that they really missed being able to hang out inside, with an HVAC system going. I said that I understood because, I too, enjoyed the cool comfort, but, I also enjoyed being outside in the fresh air. They said that where they lived, outside meant that they had to breathe in the smog and pollution that came from living in a concrete world. By the end of the month I think they would say that they enjoyed their stay after all but the lack of air conditioning was a real wake up call for them.